Here is the Cartier Minute Repeater that I mentioned in my last post about the Cartier Skeleton Pocket Watch.  Five years in the making, this exquisite piece will surely be one of the highlights on SIHH 2012 in Geneva.  It goes without saying that minute repeaters are some of the priciest and most rarely seen complications in all of modern day horology.

As one of the defining concepts for the Rotonde de Cartier Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon watch, the Manufacture Cartier has paid particular attention to the acoustics of this watch, in fact they claim a “new watchmaking theory in relation to the transmission of sound, based on a relationship between volume (45 mm), weight (approx. 32 grammes) and power (68 decibels).”  The equation may best be summarised as follows: the lower the weight of a repeating watch’s case and the larger its diameter, the greater its capacity to produce a loud sound.”  Which is why, I guess, that Cartier has chosen to present the Rotonde de Cartier Minute Repeater watch in grade 5 polished titanium with a 45 mm diameter (but not sure how to explain that there will also be a [somewhat less acoustically-pleasing] pink gold model, too). Anyway, here it is…

 Cartier Rotonde de Cartier Minute Repeater

Limited Edition 50 pieces (50 pieces in pink gold also to be produced)

45mm titanium case, Cartier Calibre 9402 MC movement (Geneva Seal), minute repeater activator/pusher at 8 o’clock

Oh — you can grab some live looks and additional informed discussion of the piece here.